The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Many communication devices, such as portable computers, smart phones, wireless devices, and the like are configured to operate in wireless local area networks (WLANs) that operate according to communication protocols such as the IEEE 802.11a, b, g, and n standards. WLANs that require a dedicated access point (AP) that manages the network are often referred to as “infrastructure networks”. Often, the AP is in a fixed location.
Unlike infrastructure networks, peer-to-peer (P2P) wireless networks do not require dedicated APs. Rather, in a P2P wireless network, a peer-to-peer group can be dynamically formed (e.g., independent of a fixed physical location) from a set of peer-to-peer-enabled wireless communication devices (“P2P devices”). One of the set of P2P devices operates as a P2P group owner of the P2P group, and the others in the set operate as P2P clients.
P2P wireless devices generally are backwards compatible with WLANs. That is, a P2P device is generally enabled to simultaneously support a complete set of P2P functionality and a complete set of infrastructure functionality. In this manner, as a P2P device moves, it may connect to a P2P wireless network or to an infrastructure WLAN. In some implementations, simultaneous connections to both a P2P and an infrastructure WLAN are possible.